1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input/output conversion system for multiple character code sets in a computer system where different character code sets are handled in multiple, i.e. a computer system where processing is executed among a plurality of computers each of which utilizes a character code set different from others.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With information processing systems using computers becoming more and more diversified and complicated recently, distributed processing systems are increasingly adopted. In such systems, a plurality of computers connected via communication media are used at a time so as to share necessary processing among them.
Such computer systems give rise to a problem which has been overlooked so far: text codes expressed with a certain character code set may be processed by a computer using another character code set.
Suppose a certain result of processing at computer A is output to a text file b and the text file b is processed by B, for example. Since computers A and B have different code sets, the text file b cannot be input directly to computer B.
To cope with such a problem, conventional systems utilize input/output conversions for multiple character code sets. In conventional input/output conversions for multiple character code sets, it is necessary to convert the character code set in advance corresponding to the computer to which the text file is output or input. This results in existence of a plurality of text files with the same contents but with different character code sets.
Thus, when a text file is commonly used by a plurality of computers with different definitions of character code sets, a plurality of text files are required. Since a text file defined with a certain character code set cannot be directly input or output to a plurality of computers for different character code sets, the same contents need to be expressed in a plurality of text files at a time for different character code sets usable by different computers. The need of a plurality of text files having the same contents to be processed at a plurality of computers results in requirement of conversion processes for a plurality of text files and resources to handle a plurality of text files.